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How to All Stars
This is a guide of All Stars Basics I put together for my gang family. It's cut and pasted from our Discord server, so ignore the parts that reference specific Discord channels. All-Stars Events have become the single most important facet of the game for growing your UL/CK build strength. Placing well in these events is essential because (A) All-Stars events often have parts that can't be gotten from normal UL boxes, and (B) the high-tier prizes contain enough of one item to significantly advance its power to useful levels. The following "best-practices" should be employed to give you the best chance at a Top-29 or higher placement, even without spending money or other resources. General All-Stars Best Practices #There is nothing you can do to affect the grouping of players you are placed with. Don't delay entering, except to get the information listed in point 2. #Before you start, check #events-discussion to find out what style of All-Stars it is and what modifiers you may encounter. For those adventurers paving the way, modifiers can be found by clicking "re-roll" during your first run and scrolling through them. You do not actually have to reroll them to see the list. Please post them if they haven't been posted. #Select your builds based on those modifiers. Typically, you will have one "main" build that does almost every fight, and a couple of niche builds to take care of specific opponents or terrain (an effective jumper, hill-sitter, heavy build, rear defender, or flipper, for example). Sometimes you will want two strong general builds to get you through if it is a style that has healing points. #Make your main build do as much damage as possible as fast as possible. A typical main in the current meta is a whale with bigfoot on the back, knob on the front, diamond lotus, flamethrower on top, and rocket on bottom. #Use your x2 video as often as you can. Play x5 tickets exclusively otherwise... only use single entries for testing or if you are going to bed without having 3 batteries. #NEVER pay gems to save points. You are far better off spending 300 gems to get an extra 3 x5 runs. #Talk to people about what's working or not. Sometimes dropping a bit of health to change to a more efficient wheel is crucial. #Don't go "on tilt." ( #dealing-with-tilt ) ... people quit the game because of AS Rage. #Play conservatively for the first couple of days. Some points is better than no points. #Pay attention to best-practices for toolboxing. Toolboxing is a crucial element of All-Stars success. Toolboxing Best Practices #Do not let toolboxes expire! Before they run out, stack another one on. When you add a new toolbox to an already boxed part, it adds that percentage (up to a 120% maximum - above that is lost, but a rare confirmation screen will warn you), and changes the duration to the greater of either the current time remaining or the duration of the box being added. #Do not add an acid box to an already boxed weapon or an extra weapon box to an already boxed body unless you really want to... if you do, you **immediately** expire the previous bonus and have to start from scratch when the acid or slot box expires. #Acid and slot boxes only last 1 hour. The best uses for acid and slot boxes are (A) at the very start when you have ten batteries and a free x2 ad, (B) when your other boxes have expired and before you start them again, and © when you buy a load of batteries (which should be timed with B if you're going to do it) #Toolboxes are percentage based, so they will see the most benefit from the parts with the highest stats (the exception being if you have the highest stat weapon placed where it doesn't hit) #Toolbox :UL: cost is based on the rarity and level of the item it's being added to (it's far cheaper to put a box on a "standard" part than an "outstanding" part). When you're choosing which parts to box, take cost/benefit into consideration. #Plan your boxing based on the duration of the event and be efficient. Running to 120% 6 times is expensive, but going as slow as possible doesn't give a lot of benefit on the low days. #Boxing benefits *seem* to really take off at about 80%. Consider going to there with smaller boxes and then using 30% and 40% boxes to extend the top-bonus time as long as possible. Box durations: When a box has more than 24 hours left it will display as 1 day, but is still counting down in the background. 10% - 12 hours 20% - 20 hours 30% - 28 hours 40% - 36 hours Gameplay Best Practices #Select the highest value opponent that you are SURE you can beat. You'll be still be wrong about this sometimes. It's better to sacrifice 10 potential points, or even 100, than fail out and get none. #If you're not SURE you can win a fight, and you have the option, quit and take the points. The exception is if you are using a single ticket or x2 ad to intentionally test and you're fine with losing. #95% of the time, if you can beat 16/20 you can beat 20/20, particularly if you are properly toolboxing. Past 16, one of the three opponents will always be a Zeptobot based on your unboxed stats, and usually an ineffective build style. #Understand that the first day or two will have a learning curve and you'll get surprised. Make a note somewhere of the terrain and what happened so you don't get surprised again. #Start slow, especially when your toolbox box bonus is low. Take small risks when you're comfortable, but make sure you're banking points. #Use the terrain modifiers to get the first hit in ... this will often let you beat opponents that out-stat you. (Example: when possible, stay on the back side of a hill and either shoot through it or make them come to you.) #Be really careful with wind and low/no gravity. This is where weird things tend to happen. #Never trust horseshoe or TNT in Zero-G ... on either side. Black Market/Store Best Practices #Never give money to Zepto. They're dicks. But if you're dead set on it, use the following guides to evaluate purchases. #Some jerk is always going to be ready to spend more money than you. If you were a massive P2W player, you wouldn't be in FTF. Accept it and be pleasantly surprised if you buy a win. #It is believed that your spending tier factors into your league grouping. Regularly spending is more likely to land you in a league with other regular spenders (aka a hard league). Doublers: #Doublers give you twice as many points for every banked run, and so are extremely powerful and almost always guarantee a higher prize tier than you'd have otherwise. It is *almost* impossible to get Top-3 ranking without it in most events. Doublers do nothing for you if you fail out of a run and aren't a replacement for good play. #Zepto denies it, but when you buy an offer, an algorithm records that and over time gives you more and more expensive offers. These offers have more and better bonuses along with the doubler, but over time you'll be stuck paying $100 whenever you want one. Unless you're good with spending on that level, don't buy everything. #Check the prizes and amounts and evaluate how much you'll benefit from each tier. You may find that you're fine with getting top 29 in a particular event and want to stay Free To Play, or you may find that Top-3 (or 1st) will give you a crucial upgrade. #Look at what comes with the doubler ... Sometimes it's better than the All-Stars prize. Occasionally it will be a part or parts that can only be obtained through cash offers. #Do you need gems? The cost on the doubler offers is comparable to the gem-only store price. Some people consider doubler offers to be the only source you should use to purchase gems. #If you're going to buy a doubler, buy it as soon as possible to get the most benefit from it. Batteries: #Batteries can be used to save or advance your tier. #Some people use batteries for an early lead to intimidate people. #The best time to use batteries is when you have maximised toolbox bonuses either through full boxing or acid/slot) #Batteries are a better buy than gem-saving points. Complaints Best Practices #All-Stars is rage inducing. Use #rage-cussing to the fullest. #Contacting Zepto Support is a giant waste of your time. They will do nothing. Nothing. Accept it and move on. -Aaroneous (Fat Tracks Federation)